Christmas Eve

So I have no idea what you all do for Christmas Eve, I love Christmas Eve because it is so much fun and we always have a blast!! First I start out with breakfast with the Harlows, then finish shopping and wrapping presents, then get ready for Christmas Eve service at church, then drive over to grandma rachel's to eat tamales, then play 21, poker and other card games with my cousins betting with PESOS ( grandpa's pesos and he always ran his card table before when he was alive), then we fight with my aunts and uncles that we can not start open the Christmas story or ANYTHING until midnight because that is tradition! It is so much fun...we argue with them and then turn a little annoying about the timing of things...Then we gather around; there are almost 50 people all in my grandmas kitchen, living room and dining room...an older cousin reads the Christmas story ( Jeremy does the best at it)...then we go around and say what we are thankful for and then have a family prayer time thanking God for the blessings of the past year and asking for protection and His grace for the coming year. Then us older girl cousins start passing out the gifts to everyone ( my aunt jen and lisa used to pass them out when we were younger) after all of the gifts are passed out then we open up gifts. By the time we are all done picking up the trash and opening up gifts then we get in our cars and go home...it is about 1:45 by now...growing up it was funny because my parents are procrastinators and would still have to go home and wrap the rest of our presents.

Pray for US!!!

Scott and I are so happily married and we love each other with all of our hearts! We are having a rough holiday season and would love any and all of your prayers! We found out this morning that Scott will not be able to come home for Christmas or Christmas Eve...Our hearts are VERY heavy and we are both trying to love each other through our pain and hurt...we are asking that everyone just pray that we don't fight over these next 48 hours! We love you all and wish you the Merriest Christmas!

Mom's Bday

My mom is so funny and I love her so much! She cracks me up all the time and she sometimes is a "little" high matienance and can not really let us give her what she wants unless she knows all the details. for example she wanted a specific cake. The cake that she wanted we ordered and the day of her birthday dinner she was talking about how she might want to go out to eat, so lets go...then she said she doesnt get what she wants....blah...blah...blah so then I pulled out the cake and just showed her the cake and said SEE HERE IT IS!!! It was all in all a good day...she loves the popcorn popper that we got her and was delighted to have all of us around the table eating and sharing with each other...the only missing family member was my wonderful hubby, he was at work :(

Hot Tamales

I love my big, loud, giving, and wonderful family. Sometimes I forget that everyone does not have the same love, acceptance, care and support that I have from my family. My family on my dad's side of the family has been making Christmas tamales longer than I have been alive. I love it!! It is a great time of fun, love, laughter and making memories. We normally wake up and start at like 7:30 in the morning and then we finish around noon...Growing up my grandpa always had the most important job to clean the corn husk and the olives. Growing up I was always close to grandpa. He taught me how to clean the corn husk and how long to soak them , the proper way to gather up the hair, etc. My grandpa has been gone now for two years . I miss him and it was hard for my grandma. Last year I decided that as long as my grandma makes tamales at her house that I will take over my grandpas job of sneaking little kids olives on their fingers, clean the corn husk and heckling my aunts, uncles, cousins and loving my grandma. We started later in the afternoon this time around and that felt very wierd because we didnt eat any mexican bread or drink any coffee and everyone was already awake so the heckling was too much!

Cake

My husband is so adorable, and I love it so much that he and I have so much fun together...we have a ton of fun whenever we are together. Scotty is so amazing and amazing to me and I think that it is so cool when he cares for me and show it in little special ways how he loves me. One of the things that I wanted for my birthday was my husband to make me my birthday cake. He did such a good job. He was amazingly funny through the cake making process, " you are not suppose to mix it in the pan"..."how do you turn on the oven"..."I spray this stuff all over the pan"..."how do I get the egg shell out of here"...the comments were hysterical and I loved watching it and laughing with him all the way! He was so miticulous about frosting the dual layered cake, it was even warm which made it AMAZING! The whole time he was baking he got to here so many comments from the peanut gallery aka anyone who came over for lunch. It was a day that just left me looking at him with such a warm smile. He even decorated with 26 candles...i felt so old and the way he arranged them made me look much older too! Glad to have him and all of you through this next year of memories

Scotty like jack ass the show

Scott & I met my parents at Home Depot to pick out our Christmas tree...Before we got there we had a LOAD of fun. Scott loves the show jack ass, and I have never seen a single episode. HE said hey get in the cart and I will push you around. It was very funny!!! he spun me around, let go, laughed, crashed me into the curb, etc. He had a blast and so did I. My brothers Chris & Jeremy did encourage him to be a little more mischievous than normal. Scott even pushed me all the way across the parking lot and parked me at the Christmas tree lot...LOL...The day workers in the parking lot were laughing so much at us and talking a bunch in spanish. i am sure that they were saying...look at those crazy white people...they treat carts like toys...must be nice to play and not have to work...crazy wuedos (white people in Spanish)...My parents drove up and could not believe what I was doing because it was way out of my normal character...if my brothers would have done it, I would have been so mortified and MAD...but Scotty just is different! He had so much fun and loved the fact that he could run and push me and that he was going to get yelled at by his mom. We cracked ourselves up...my siblings made sure that we got a picture.

All I want for Christmas is....

My Hubby Home on Christmas Morning!!

So for the most part this year, I am protesting Christmas this year...I know that I am being selfish and a little bit of a brat, BUT here me out first! I love being married to Scott and since we were dating the (second time) I always imagined what our first Christmas as a married couple would look like...we would wake up at our house on Christmas morning...he would bring me coffee in bed...we would make up open presents in our pajamas....get in the car and drive over to my parents house to open presents...his mom, dad and sisters would come over for brunch...and we would just hang out all day.

This is just merely a dream in my head that will not be a reality for me! The fact that it will not be a reality brings tears to my eyes when I even think about it just a little. Scott has to work on Christmas day and will not be home until about 2 o'clock in the afternoon. It is hard to hear lots of people's comments about how it is not that big of a deal, its just a pagan holiday, he will be home in the afternoon, so what if it's your first Christmas, BLAH BLAH BLAH. In my opinion Christmas is about spending time with the ones you love, making memories and enjoying each other's company. I dont really want to make any Christmas memories with out the human being alive that I love most, SCOTT! I love my family dearly, but I have a special love for Scott. Part of me is just wanting to lay in bed depressed on Christmas morning and not do anything until he comes home. I dont know what I am going to do yet, accept be a BRAT and protest it until it comes around and I HAVE to make a decision .

The one thing that we have done so far to celebrate Christmas is go get a tree with my parents.

apple "picking"

Here is Gracie, Paige & Garrett climbing in a tree...they were little Monkey's the whole time.
If you look closely the apple is not even really on the tree, Deene climbed to the top and dropped some so that we could have Zac "pick" an apple! :)
Zac was not liking the idea of sitting in a tree for a picture even though Grandma thought it would be so cute!

This weekend I have a long weekend, Scott is gone :( and I am having some rough asthma days! Add all of that up and it means that I am hanging out at my parents' house until Scott comes back home on Thursday. My parents planned on going to Oak Glen, Ca to hang out "pick" apples and hang out with Sean, Deb, Paige & Garrett Arnett. I went and had a blast with my nephew Zachary, mom, dad, Gracie & Deene....below are a few pictures of the days events. I stole my sister's shirt so I could match and I bought a pie crust topper to make my husband a wonderful apple pie for Thanksgiving! I can't wait to make it for him. All in all it was a great day, but I am WIPED out! Wanted to post these before I forgot!

Hidden Blessings Every day

so as some of you may know I was taken to the ER on Tuesday morning and Wednesday night, apparently I am going to have my own reserved parking spot soon, LOL JK!!! Now to the hidden blessing part, my husband was home and was able to take care of me, think rationally, and drive me to all of the fun ER visits talk to the nurses and make sure that I was taken care of. A HUGE blessing to me because if my sweet hunny was gone at work and not home then I would have had to at least initially driven myself to the ER and then try and convince him that I was okay and that he didn't need to come home; even though I REALLY would have wanted him to! The main point is that he was home, able to take care of me and I am now okay. Crazy life of someone with allergies and asthma. PRAISE THE LORD my husband knows me well enough to take care of me and get me to the ER.

House Update

We are so use to being told that the idea of selling our house is not going to happen and when it does our credit is going to be destroyed that we have almost lost hope. A few things that have turned a good direction that give us hope, but we are NOT getting our hopes too high! Scott was busy on Friday making a ton of phone calls and learned a few things:

1. If we ask for a ZERO settlement letter since the house is a short sale for health reasons then our credit WILL NOT BE AFFECTED! We could possibly actually buy a house right away.
1. Praise 1: we might be able to buy a house right away and our diligence might pay off!
   
2. We called an investment company who is buying houses in Hemet and they are coming to look at the house next Tuesday, they sound interested because our house is not trashed and it is a good investment house
1. Prayer 1: They do BUY the house
   
3. We talked to our Mortgage companies they told us that they are going after people who walk away from their houses and taking them to the cleaners and taking everything of value that they have
   
1. PRAISE 2: We did not listen to the realtors or bank people who told us to walk away and are still honoring our word in staying at the house.
   

Hope is so hard to have when so many things seem hopeless...trying to sell our house is an up and down emotional journey that has made us look at the real important things in life. We love each other, have a roof over our heads, and are finding out answers before we make decisions. As things change I will keep you all updated!

Halloween

Halloween was so much fun! We were able to go and hang out with Dan, Carlee, Wendy(Mckenna), Peter Pan(Gabe) and Tinkerbell(Julianna). We had carnival games in the driveway and candy to give. We had a blast and were so pondered at the things that are "ok" at Halloween. We were all shocked at how many parents told their kids, "just get the candy! you can't play the games" and how many "trashy" 6-8 year olds there were. Who lets their 6-8 year old be a "sexy" or "scary" ANYTHING! I have no idea, BUT a few things that Mr. & Mrs. Rollins did decide

1. To go Trick or treating you have to be able to walk the WHOLE TIME
2. Never buy a costume for full price, clearance all the WAY
3. If you are not a grown up then you should NOT have kids.

This is a pretty sarcastic BLOG, but we had such a GREAT time and had a TON of fun. Our costumes were well...I was a kickback sub and Scott was himself LOL!!! I was a slacker and didn't take one picture of the two of us, but decided to write about it.

Lessons I am Learning

I was in the middle of posting a blog of what God is teaching me over the last month, and decided that it was too much for me to post and that I just did not want to admit the life lessons that I am LEARNING...so I was on yahoo.com and reading an article that was titled 10 reasons why you are not rich. Six months ago i would have read the article and laughed at the idea that THIS was the reason why I was not rich. i just needed a few more dollars and then I would be "rich"( I posted the article just in case anyone wanted to read it). Basically it sums up the lessons that I am learning through completing the Crown Financial book/study. Simple things in life like:

• placing too much value on my car and not just using it for its actual designed purpose...go from point A to B.
• Feeling a sense of entitlement to things that you have
• allowing compound interest to work against you and not for you
• thinking that you need things that you obviously DONT...think all of the "stuff" that fills your closet
  
• living in too big of a house ( i dont, but I did want to for a VERY long time)
• you dont take advantage of opprotunities
  

The BIGGEST thing that I am learning is that I am entitled to NOTHING! All I have is gifts in my life to be thankful for...I have salvation through Christ which when you think about it, is a gift enough to dwell on for a lifetime and think of how blessed I am. With and through all of this I am thankful for the lessons that I am learning and for the support and people who are loving through it all.

God has blessed me with so many things that I do not take advantage. I have an awesome husband who supports me with everything that I do, I am going through the Crown Financial study and learning how to apply the principals to my life. I have traded in my beautiful dream car Daisy that I worked so hard to get ( my red jetta) for a much more responsible and fiscally wise blue honda civic ( I have not named her yet).

10 Reasons You're Not Rich

10 (More) Reasons You're Not Rich

by Jeffrey Strain
Wednesday, October 1, 2008provided by

Many people assume they aren't rich because they don't earn enough money. If I only earned a little more, I could save and invest better, they say.

The problem with that theory is they were probably making exactly the same argument before their last several raises. Becoming a millionaire has less to do with how much you make, it's how you treat money in your daily life.

More from TheStreet.com: • A Defensive Strategy That Works • 2 Simple Steps to Future Wealth • We All Just Learned an Expensive Lesson

The list of reasons you may not be rich doesn't end at 10. Caring what your neighbors think, not being patient, having bad habits, not having goals, not being prepared, trying to make a quick buck, relying on others to handle your money, investing in things you don't understand, being financially afraid and ignoring your finances.

Here are 10 more possible reasons you aren't rich:

You care what your car looks like: A car is a means of transportation to get from one place to another, but many people don't view it that way. Instead, they consider it a reflection of themselves and spend money every two years or so to impress others instead of driving the car for its entire useful life and investing the money saved.

You feel entitlement: If you believe you deserve to live a certain lifestyle, have certain things and spend a certain amount before you have earned to live that way, you will have to borrow money. That large chunk of debt will keep you from building wealth.

You lack diversification: There is a reason one of the oldest pieces of financial advice is to not keep all your eggs in a single basket. Having a diversified investment portfolio makes it much less likely that wealth will suddenly disappear.

You started too late: The magic of compound interest works best over long periods of time. If you find you're always saying there will be time to save and invest in a couple more years, you'll wake up one day to find retirement is just around the corner and there is still nothing in your retirement account.

You don't do what you enjoy: While your job doesn't necessarily need to be your dream job, you need to enjoy it. If you choose a job you don't like just for the money, you'll likely spend all that extra cash trying to relieve the stress of doing work you hate.

You don't like to learn: You may have assumed that once you graduated from college, there was no need to study or learn. That attitude might be enough to get you your first job or keep you employed, but it will never make you rich. A willingness to learn to improve your career and finances are essential if you want to eventually become wealthy.

You buy things you don't use: Take a look around your house, in the closets, basement, attic and garage and see if there are a lot of things you haven't used in the past year. If there are, chances are that all those things you purchased were wasted money that could have been used to increase your net worth.

You don't understand value: You buy things for any number of reasons besides the value that the purchase brings to you. This is not limited to those who feel the need to buy the most expensive items, but can also apply to those who always purchase the cheapest goods. Rarely are either the best value, and it's only when you learn to purchase good value that you have money left over to invest for your future.

Your house is too big: When you buy a house that is bigger than you can afford or need, you end up spending extra money on longer debt payments, increased taxes, higher upkeep and more things to fill it. Some people will try to argue that the increased value of the house makes it a good investment, but the truth is that unless you are willing to downgrade your living standards, which most people are not, it will never be a liquid asset or money that you can ever use and enjoy.

You fail to take advantage of opportunities: There has probably been more than one occasion where you heard about someone who has made it big and thought to yourself, "I could have thought of that." There are plenty of opportunities if you have the will and determination to keep your eyes open.

What to do when the keys are in the trunk

So some of you all are thinking what?!?! yes, this morning i woke up on time, made coffee, curled my hair, made my lunch, and drank two cups of coffee, brushed my teeth, turned off the ac, and then gathered up my things and walked out the front door. I locked the door had my keys in hand, placed them on top of my laundry basket, popped the trunk placed the basket in the car and then grabbed my purse out of the basket and shut the trunk. YEP YOU GUESSED it my keys were left in the trunk right on top of the laundry basket. As my eyes welled up, I thought now lets be smarter than crying sure I was locked out of the car, and the house and it was chilly this morning. All I needed to do was get a hold of a 24 hour lock smith and then I would be fine! Sweet, praise the Lord I had my cell phone called 411 got a number and called them 20-30 minutes and someone would be there ok. I would still make it on time to work, but just wouldnt be there to tutor Daniel Wallior, not too bug of a worry my dad could do it. I then called my principals secretary to say that I might be late too work today because I locked my keys in the trunk of my car, she said no problem and that she would take care of it. Whew realieved I was and then what is one to do...I couldnt grade papers, they were in the trunk...work on my laptop, it was in the trunk too...couldnt watch tv, i was locked out of the house...i had nothing to sit on because we dont have any yard furniture and I was in my work clothes...after about 20 minutes of pacing I decided to sit on my purse and wait...not just wait, I STARTED to ball my eyes out! I could not believe that I had locked my keys in my car and no one had a spare set. scott has one, but he's at work! YEA! Then comes the longest wait outside in the cold, my favorite thing in the whole WORLD! I hate being cold and I get real GROUCHY WHEN I GET COLD! Now here comes the kicker~ I waited for 1 hour and 45 minutes in the cold out side for the guy to come ( remember he was going to be there in 20 to 30 minutes) I called the company about four times
and then come to find out that he was on a police call and was not coming. FANTASTIC! My neighbor came out to put her trashcan to the curb and saw me sitting in the driveway and crying she was nice enough to let me come in and sit on her couch in the warmth of her house. The dispatcher was at least nice enough to give me to more numbers, the first number was at least 55 minutes away and well that was not going to work. The next company was going to be there in 15-20 minutes, awesome I might make it to second period by the time he comes and lets me in and then i drive to Riverside. After waiting 30 minutes I called and actually talked to the locksmith and it was going to be 55 minutes until he got to me...so i would be getting to work, just in time for lunch. I called my principals secretary and she said not too worry, just to try to get her a lesson plan for my students to complete... remember no laptop, email or anything....WHO is going to be able to print something out....UNCLE GREG!!! I called him and walked him through a website to get a worksheet and called it a day for school. I was suppose to go to disneyland with the Russells today after work and my keys were still in my trunk. My fantastic husband and I have been calling eachother back and forth and he called three companies got a price quote and a locksmith would be at our house in 15 minutes to let me in....He was, and my keys were gotten out and I was on my way to Riverside...going to the best place ever to find the peace that I wanted, you guessed it starbucks! :) So lets recap a little....
1 hour 45 minutes in the cold + 2 hours and 15 minutes locked out of your house and car + a VERY LATE teacher = hopefully a good chuckle....( i know you all are thinking...glad it was her and not me)....I am able to laugh now and Scott is thinking of ways for us to prevent me locking my keys into places...LOL

house

The offer on our house was declined by the bank and we are waiting to see if the man wanting to buy the house is going to try to counter offer the bank. We are just waiting to see and praying that in God's timing the house will be sold. We are still going through flyers pretty quick and keeping the house up. We still enjoy living there, but are wanting to be in Riverside with our family and friends and closer. If you know anyone in the market for a house in hemet, I got one for them.

I caved in

So as almost everyone knows I do not have a myspace account or a facebook. I decided to get a blogger on Google because I feel like I can control a little more who can view this and such. I like to keep my life as a teacher and my personal life professional. I do not know how up to date I am going to keep this but I am going to try my best!